Over the past fourteen years, a new recreational pastime of engaging in paint-ball games has emerged, a pastime in which capsules containing water-soluble paint are fired from pistol-type weapons by two separate teams. (The teams try to capture a flag and thus eliminate their opponents.) A paint-ball is comprised of a frangible gelatin capsule that encases a small quantity of paint. Projected through the air by carbon dioxide, nitrogen or compressed air, the balls disperse the paint contained in the gelatin encasement when hitting their targets. In fact, the paint splatters upon impact, thus marking that particular player out of the game.
The pistols used to fire the paint-balls are relatively uncomplicated gas-powered guns, resembling pellet or BB guns. A paint-ball gun consists of a trigger housing upon which are mounted a back receiver and a front receiver. The back receiver houses a hammer, which is initially pushed against a spring, causing the spring to contract. Upon release, the hammer moves forward through the back receiver, due to the uncoiling spring force. The hammer is released for forward movement by the action of a sear, that is actuated by a trigger mechanism. The sear initially holds the hammer in place against the contracted spring. Upon release of the hammer, the sear moves forward, creating two different reactions. The sear pushes a rod connected to the hammer and the front bolt forward, thus pushing a paint-ball from the front receiver feed-port into the barrel. As the ball is being chambered in the barrel, the hammer strikes the valve assembly, which releases gas in two different directions, forward and backward. It is the forward blast of gas that provides the kinetic impetus that forces a paint-ball through the barrel and into the air.
One of the major problems with the paint-ball pistols is the tendency of the gelatin capsules to break or rupture, either within the front receiver (where the front bolt pushes the paint-ball) or the barrel of the gun. This often happens due to the fact that the gelatin capsules are especially designed to be frangible and to break on impact. Therefore, when actuating the hammer and releasing the gas charge, it is not unusual to impart too much force to the capsule. In cases where the capsules have broken, the ability to propel or project further capsules is impaired. Wherever the capsule break occurs, that area must be cleaned of paint-ball debris, prior to resuming paint-ball activity. The ruptured paint-ball leaves a particularly gooey and unmanageable mess, thereby necessitating the removal and cleaning of the front receiver or barrel proper.
Present paint-ball pistols have front receivers and barrels that do not detach easily, either from each other or from the trigger housing. As a result, cleaning a paint-ball pistol is generally tedious and especially inconvenient during actual play, hampering a player's ability to function or help his or her team. This impediment thus slows down a player's paint-ball shooting, causing a game to become less enjoyable and affecting not only his continued play, but also that of his team. This is an especially critical problem for tournament players vying for financial reward.
There has, therefore, arisen a need to provide a paint-ball pistol with a front receiver and a barrel that can be easily and quickly removed from the trigger housing of the gun; cleaned; and then easily reattached.
The need has been long felt, because many paint-ball pistol designs have tried to provide this improvement without much success. Most such guns utilize set screws to hold the trigger housing to the front receiver and a thumb screw to affix the barrel to the front receiver. While not a formidable task, the turning of screws is, however, a time-consuming procedure; it often requires tools, which are not permitted on the playing field. The misplacement or dropping of the tear-down screws during play makes the paint-ball gun inoperable. The need to spend several minutes to remove, clean and then reattach the front receiver or the barrel severely limits present-day enjoyment of the sport and greatly affects the performance of an individual player and her team.
The present inventor has developed a simple, reliable and convenient means by which the front receiver or the barrel of a paint-ball gun can be removed, cleaned and then reattached quickly, without the need for tools and without a player having to face the possibility of losing the screws during the excitement of the game.
The current invention uses a spring-loaded detent mechanism to anchor the front receiver to the trigger housing of the pistol, and a duplicate spring-loaded detent mechanism to anchor the barrel to the front receiver. The detent mechanism requires a simple pull of a knob against a biasing spring force to withdraw a locking pin from a hole in the front receiver or the barrel. Once the locking pin is removed, either the front receiver or the barrel can be easily slid from its original position (e.g., to be cleaned). The knob is given a quarter-twist after it is pulled, so that it can rest upon an anchoring abutment. The anchoring abutment allows the pin to remain withdrawn, freeing both hands to disengage either the front receiver from the trigger housing or the barrel from the front receiver.